russia sent weapons to the syrian government. they protected the syrian government in the u.n. that does appear it could be changing. secretary of state hillary clinton met with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov yesterday in dublin and officials described it as a good meeting, a positive meeting. there seemed to be a an air of compromise in this meeting. past meetings have been hostile with very negative, with little done. both sides yelling at each other, arguing with each other. according to officials this past meeting seemed to be much more constructive. there seemed to be effort to find common ground. where that will actually lead in terms of ending the violence in syria is still very much unknown, martha. martha: boy, that is what diplomacy is all about and it sounds like it's in the works. hopefully it will work in a positive direction. now in terms what is going on the ground there, conor, we know assad's strongholds have been threatened. how close are the rebels to crashing in on those? >> reporter: we're getting lots of different information. it's tough to sort of